Young women, particularly women of color, are at increasing risk from HIV in the United States today. Prevention efforts focused on increasing consistent condom use have had limited success. Gendered sexual roles that limit female power in safer sex negotiations have been suggested as a possible influence, but little empirical work has been done in this promising area. There is a shortage of research on factors that empower women to negotiate safer sex with male partners and influences on their ability to do so successfully. This application proposes to fill this gap by investigating the influences of gender norms and gender inequality, as enacted through female sexual agency, on women's safer sex negotiations, using a mixed methods design. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]